Welcome
to Open Extended C Development Kit !

What is this project about?
It's a multi-os cross-platform developing kit including compilers, libraries
and other tools based on an extended C language. And it's open source. Wanna
learn more? Let's overview its history...

Part 1.
In the beginning there was only a dream...

... a dream
about the ideal compiler for game developers.

This project is based on
the older XSCompiler,
a self-compiled MS-DOS 32-bit protected mode compiler, started in 1997 by me
(Victor Prodan).The XS Project started with a small
compiler for a language similar with ANSI-C and C--, but unfortunately its sources
were lost in the summer of 1997. The idea was to make a C-like compiler with
more support for the low-level programming required at that time for making
games like Doom or Duke Nukem.

In the fall of 1997 started
the programming of the XS Compiler, which was based on a powerful scripted lexical
analyzer (tokenizer) that made possible an easy modification of the programming
language. That feature allowed adding different extensions to the standard C
language (like the exchange operator <-> or the with instruction
taken from Pascal).

Another very important feature
of the XS Compiler was that it produced 32-bit protected-mode programs (running
in a DOS environment), which made possible the use of all the resources of a
32-bit processor. The initialization of the protected mode was made by an own
Extender, which provided a linear memory space (up to 4Gb) for the programs.

Also, another powerful argument
in the favor of the XS Compiler was the large group of libraries included, which
covered almost all of the domains of computer programming: hardware (serial/mouse
driver, timer, ports, VESA driver), multimedia (sound blaster, graphics (pcx,
gif) and animation (fli/flc) ), multitasking, compression, standard libraries
(i/o, string, math etc).

Starting from the beginning
of the 1999 the XS Compiler was published under a freeware license on the Internet
and in the Simtel database. During the time, a positive feedback was received
from programmers from all over the world, which was materialized in emails,
and several proposals (to use the XSCompiler as the core compiler of a new OS,
to add support for other programming languages (more or less known), the permission
to use the compiler for a game etc.). Unfortunately, because of the lack of
resources (time/support), the development of the XS Compiler stopped in 1999.

Part
2. Conquering MS Windows

The Extended
C Development Kit started at the end of the year 2000 with the development
of a Windows version of the XS Compiler (which produced Windows applications).
This version was built on the bases of the DOS version of the XS Compiler, but
with a different philosophy and technology. This new compiler was the first
version of the Extended C Compiler.

The ECDK was more ANSI-C
compatible like XSCompiler and it even had a nice IDE, named AVATA, with many
many features,
like syntax highlighting, autocompletition, debugger, dockable bars and many
more.

The compiler, named ECC,
was able to produce Win32, Win32 Console and DOS Protected-Mode 32-bit Applications
and had also support for Win32 (Visual C) static libraries.

Unfortunately, ECDK was
put on hold in February 2002, because my lack of MFC skills (required for the
IDE) :(

Part
3. Exploring a new OS

At the end of the 2002 the
compiler (XS/ECC) was dug up and used to make a XSCompiler version for MenuetOS
(a fully 32 bit assembly written, graphical OS for asm programming, distributed
under General Public License). This compiler was improved and used (among other
things) to make an OpenGL implementation (unfinished). You you wanna learn more
about these, go here.

Part
4. A new star is born

Going open source.... this
was a step that could have been a long time ago, but the studies blurred my
mind :-). As soon as I finished my university studies and became a computer
engineer :-D I decided to make this bold step for the sake of my compiler's
future, as I couldn''t find the time to work on it for several years :-(.

And here we are... What's
new in this project?

First of all, it's open
source. This means more developers, more bug fixes, more improvements.

Second, it's multi-os.
This means that basically the same compiler will be used in DOS, Windows,
Unix or other OS.

Third, it's cross-platform.
This means that the DOS version could be used to produce Windows or Unix applications.

If you wanna learn more
about this project you should check the Docs section.
If you want to join us, please check the Contact
page.